It’s the second week of our fortnight celebration of the 1960s! We cover two classics from The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album, “Little Saint Nick” and “The Man With All The Toys”. Revelations follow.
For the next two weeks we’ll be addressing one of the more neglected decades on our list – the 1960s. This week we cover two songs that you might call Christmas music cult classics – “Close Your Mouth It’s Christmas” by The Free Design and “Rudolph Pouts” by Israfel’s Son.
By listener request, we tackle two Christmas songs from cartoon characters: “When the Saints Go Marching In” performed by the voice of Sailor Moon, Kotono Mitsuishi, and the novelty standard “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” performed by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. as The Chipmunks. Whether you find these tunes cute or cloying may depend on your level of nostalgia – listen in to hear which one causes our biggest ranking disagreement yet. Thank you to listener CJ for the request!
Join us, herald angels, for a sequel of sorts – our second Beatles-themed episode, this time featuring holiday songs written and performed by George and Ringo. If you want knowledgeable analysis of music greats, look elsewhere. If you want more Hogwarts house chatter and at least one sick McCartney burn, tune in.
Multiple people, or possibly one persistent person, requested this week’s first song, “It’s Called Christmas with a Capital C” by Go Fish. Because they hate us and our happiness, I guess? After suffering through it, we seek an antidote in the form of Eric Idle’s extremely rude “Fuck Christmas”.
May the… well, you know. This episode is all about Star Wars Day, which means we listened to some truly terrible holiday music – “What Do You Get a Wookiee For Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)” by some nobody droids that no one cares about, and “A Day To Celebrate” by Carrie Fisher, which is a shining beacon of Life Day spirit in comparison.
This week we cover a request for a familiar song in a new context: “When You Wish Upon a Star”, performed by Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket, which has apparently gained Christmas classic status because of its inclusion in a Disney special aired annually in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. We also listen to a song by Disney Channel Original Series star Kyle Massey which involves someone yelling “REMIX!” Thank you to settlechaos711 for requesting “When You Wish Upon a Star”!
It’s our 4/20 episode, man. Time to blaze up that menorah and smoke some Christmas trees. We dive into what might be two of the best songs in the surprisingly large and unsurprisingly mediocre world of marijuana-themed holiday music: “Scary F**cked Up Christmas” by Garfunkel and Oates and “Pot in the Latkes” by MC Flow.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for audiophiles! Record Store Day has rolled around again, and we celebrate with songs from albums purchased this past Christmas at one of our local independent music stores – Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” (the album, not the song), and “It’s A Holiday Soul Party” by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
This week marks a first for HARK as we cover a song performed by a listener! “The Angel Gabriel” by PC Muñoz is a modern take on a centuries-old carol, and we pair it up with another slick update on a classic song – “Dreidel” by Erran Baron Cohen featuring Jules Brookes and Y-Love.